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NCAA WOMEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS: SPOKANEMarch 17, 2012Kaela OakesChelsea PickeringSeton SobolewskiAshleigh VellaSPOKANE, WASHINGTON Miami – 70 COACH SOBOLEWSKI: Well, first off, congratulations to Miami. They did a nice job. They played some great defense and they scored enough points. I think with them missing one of their best players, they could have very easily had a bad game or had a bad attitude and just not performed very well, but my hats off to them. They did a great job. I thought that we really struggled to shoot the ball in the second half, first half and second half. Early on ‑‑ we counted in the locker room at halftime, we missed six lay‑up attempts, not that they were all uncontested, but we missed some easy shots. We missed some perimeter shots that maybe we normally would have hit. I don't know what you attribute that to. Maybe it's just jitters being at the national tournament. Maybe we just‑‑ bad night shooting, I don't know. Second half, I felt like we still played hard. I think we rushed some shots in the second half, a little panicky, just wanting to get back in the game, wanting to make plays, and I understand that, but we continued to miss open shots that we normally might have a good chance of making. Miami's length and athleticism really bothered us. Any time we tried to make a long pass, they could really cover a lot of ground and intercept passes or deflect passes. They did a nice job with that. And in a nutshell, that's it. I'm very proud of our team to make it to this point. I told them in the locker room, they helped me make a dream of mine come true. You know, as a coach you work hard your whole life, and you hope you get an opportunity to be a head coach someday, and you hope that you have a team‑‑ you can put a team good enough together that can make a run to make a championship, to maybe play in the NCAA Tournament, and they've helped me, they really helped me. I'm sure we've made some other dreams come true along the way, but I told them I'm very appreciative of everything they've done. I'm very proud of them, very, very proud of them, and I told them I am indebted to them the rest of my life. They helped me make a lifelong dream come true. Q. Kaela, question for you: This team is young. You only lose one senior in Chelsea sitting next to you. What do you take away from the whole Big Sky Tournament, now the NCAA Tournament, that helps you going into next year? KAELA OAKES: Right now I feel very blessed to have the people I do on my team, and of course we're going to miss Chelsea. She's a major asset to what we do, but I think like we've always done, we've always just had someone step up, whether it's my game or Vella's game or Chelsea's game or Cydney's game. And I think that we're going to be able to flourish next year, and we're going to have the extra experience, and the people that were younger this year are going to be a year older. I think we're going to really take advantage of that. Some other teams are losing some really good players, and I think that's even going to be a better opportunity for us, so I'm really looking forward to next year, even though we'll miss Chels. ASHLEIGH VELLA: I agree with Kaela. Chelsea is a huge asset. She does so much for us, not just stuff that you see with stats but just little things. She's a hustle player for us and a major role player. But it's nice because we have so many younger people coming in. On any given night any one of us can step up and play, but I'm looking forward to next year, even though we don't have Chelsea. Q. Chelsea, as the season winds now, now your college career is over, what goes through your mind as you realize that's the last game that you'll play? CHELSEA PICKERING: It's bittersweet, of course. You never want anything to end, especially going into the NCAA. You hope to at least win one game, be the Cinderella team. But now I just get to sit back and relax. I mean, I'm going to miss it, but my plans are to continue playing basketball overseas. Give it a month, relax, and then get back to work. Q. For any of the players, what did you have to do out there to adjust your game to the sheer size of your opponents? CHELSEA PICKERING: We really didn't adjust to anything. We kept going at them, and that was something that was probably not the best thing to do because once you drive and have two or three people collapsed on you we should have kicked it out. That was one thing we should have adjusted and could have. But other than that, our game was the same. We just didn't execute it as well. KAELA OAKES: As a point guard I felt like I had to kind of adjust my passes, they needed to be a little bit quicker, they needed to be not so long. We were getting a lot of our long passes picked off. And I just felt like it was more difficult to drive and dish and get to do what is normally easier for me to do. Their athleticism and their long arms and being able to cover the floor like Coach said was definitely a very good‑‑ it was really tough as a point guard especially to do that. ASHLEIGH VELLA: They were just really aggressive and, as Kaela said, jumping in the passing lanes, and I think we need to have been smarter and made better decisions. But we tried to stay aggressive and tried to stick with our game like we usually do, it just didn't work as well as it normally does. Q. Ashleigh, you said they were aggressive. Would you say this is the most aggressive opponent you guys have faced? ASHLEIGH VELLA: I think they're the most athletic group we've ever faced. Sacramento State are fairly aggressive in how they press us. But I think their aggression with their athleticism was definitely an asset for them. Q. Ashleigh, speaking of aggressiveness, there was a couple moments in that game, a hard foul from you, first half you got in a couple players' faces. Were you trying to inspire the team or what happened with the aggression back and forth, especially the one where she got up in your face and pushed you back? ASHLEIGH VELLA: It's just play of the game. I'm going to stay my ground and do my thing, and if she wants to get in my face, that's her business. But it's just play of the game, really. I'm just trying to stay aggressive within my own game. Q. And Chelsea, was it shots not going, or was it Miami's defense that caused those shots not to go? CHELSEA PICKERING: We had wide‑open shots, we just clearly missed. I remember one time‑out we had seven O‑boards to their five, so we were getting in the mix but our shots just weren't falling, and that's that. Q. Ashleigh, could you just talk about what it's like going against that big a player? That's pretty unusual obviously. ASHLEIGH VELLA: Yeah, she's probably one of the biggest players that we've gone against, but we've played against a 6'8" girl, too. It's hard, you've got to be physical with them within the limits of the game, but we just tried to take it at them, but it didn't pay off tonight. Q. You and your players mentioned the length and the aggressiveness of Miami, but both that press and almost like a swarming one‑two‑two hybrid one‑three‑one defense, what was that like? COACH SOBOLEWSKI: It was tough. It was a one‑one‑three, especially in the second half, then they extended full court, and it would fall back into a one‑one‑three or two‑three half court. They did that once they had a sizable lead. In the first half it was primarily man‑to‑man, switching. They could switch every screen. They did a nice job of knowing who to back off of and helping in the lane. You saw No.40 in the lane the whole night, Wilson, and they had a good game plan. But it's tough to play against. Like similar to what Ashleigh said, we've played against aggressive teams before, but we haven't played against aggressive teams of that size and athleticism before. Q. Ashleigh had a little bit of success tonight; she scored 12 points. Do you think Miami was surprised by her ability to shoot from the outside? COACH SOBOLEWSKI: Possibly. Possibly. They watch film, too. They should have seen the film and watched the stats, looked at the stats. I think she just was able to get open shots. Ashleigh is a tough match‑up just because she can hit the perimeter shot, so if they go bigger, it's usually someone that she's able to be quicker than, and if they want to help off of her, she can hit open outside shots. But I think Ashleigh just put forth the right effort to get open. She made great cuts. She made good reads and just put herself in position to make shots. Q. Your team went up against girls twice their size. Do you think the fact that they didn't back down is a testament to their true strength and desire and determination? COACH SOBOLEWSKI: Absolutely. That's kind of how we've been the whole year. If we're not better than you then we're just going to try to outwork you. That's our motto. It's written above the doorway in our locker room, "outwork them." It doesn't matter who we're going against; we're going to scrap and we're going to play hard, and if we're not as talented as you, we're going to try to outwork you. Q. Is it encouraging knowing that that you're only losing Chelsea this year? COACH SOBOLEWSKI: Yeah, yeah, I think we have a very good team returning next year, four starters returning, and then you've got some people on the bench who are really developing nicely. Jessa Jeppesen is getting much better, a lot of our freshmen will be in position to play more. I think our red shirt, Justine Joudrey, is going to be a very good player. She's got size with the ability to shoot and handle the ball and get to the basket. She's just got a great feel for the game. So I think our future looks good, looks really good. Q. Forcing 20 turnovers, obviously that's something you want to do every game, but what were you able to do as a team to force them into so many mistakes? COACH SOBOLEWSKI: Well, we didn't cause the turnovers by getting up and pressing, obviously. You saw the game. But what we did was anticipate well and help off the right people, double‑team where we could. We took charges when we could. Ash Vella took two really big charges. You probably heard them before you saw them. And I think we just helped each other out well. We played good team defense. We got deflections; we knew where to help; we knew what people could do and what they couldn't do. We backed off the non‑shooters and stayed tighter on the people who could shoot. I thought we did a really good job on No.3 in the first half. She's one of their top three scorers, and we held her to, I think, two in the first half, getting all the way out on her. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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